Redwing
by JazzyIam
Summary: The silverwings have lived in peace for 6 years. But now, with two newcomers from the south among them, it seems that the Vampyrum has returned to their lives. Can Solstice, daughter of Griffin, and Eclipse, son of the newcomer, protect the colony?
1. The Newcomer

Chapter 1 – Newcomer

The stars seemed to grimace over the northern sky as she moved silently through the night. She was a stranger, a newcomer, to the forests that surrounded Tree Haven, and her unusualness stood out deeply against the black of the night, an night that have long since belonged to silverwings. Instead of black fur, hers was warmer, brighter, the colour of the summer sunset, and her wings, gaunt as they where, spanded much larger than the wings of a silverwing. Her body had a scrawny, too-skinny look to it, but she looked as though, with food in her belly and some rest, she could achieve a size much greater than a northern bat's. Her face, though, bore the most difference; her ears where smaller, her nose and mouth elongated into a fox-like snout. Her grim eyes where black and gleaming dully in the moonlight as she struggled to keep her wings beating. She seemed weighed down by some invisible force that tugged her downward, ripping at her whole being as her eyes and ears swivelled desperately in an attempt to find a perch.

Marina, the newly-appointed silverwing chief elder, landed alone on a branch nearby, watching the poor bat fight her way forward. She could only imagine how long, how hard this bat had been flying.

"Over here!" she called, and with her wing indicated a nearby branch. "Come speak with me and rest."

The stranger gladly flapped over to the branch, wrapping her wings around herself tightly. "Thanks for your kindness. Other colonies have not been so friendly along our way."

"Our?" Marina asked, tilting her head as she scanned the sky for others, "You look alone to me."

The stranger smiled, and unfolded her wings enough to dig into them with her tapering snout. "I travel with my newborn son, Eclipse. He was only old enough to cling to my fur when we came here from the south. He -" She stopped as a little head poked from her folded wings, as tiny as a good-sized newborn silverwing. His eyes squinted against the moon's glow, as if he had only begun to poke out his head a few days before. He glanced at his mother, round, too-big eyes glinting with curiosity. "Are we here?" he asked in an overpoweringly small voice; he was like a twig that could snap at any moment.

Marina smiled. "You say you come from the south?"

The newcomer nodded. "Yes. I lived on an island, but I travelled south in search of better feeding grounds. Lived among the Vampyrum for awhile, what a disaster that was. But I had to get away from them, and so I flew north. My mate - " She caught Marina's glance and looked at her feet, "Yes, a Vampyrum indeed, he professed to hate the North, so I thought I would fly until I grew to tired to go on. That point, I think, has been reached."

Marina nodded, examining the boy she carried with her. "You look it. So your boy, he is-"

"Half Vampyrum, yes. Anyway, am I welcome to stay among your trees? I must find a place to raise my son soon."

Marina was sceptical of how fast she had jumped over the question, and also a bit worried to allow a stranger into the lands while their own newborns where so young – her third grandchild having just been born a week before – and so she considered for a long while.

"I suppose you could-"

"Oh, thank you! Thank you thank you, Brightwing. Sorry, I never caught your name."

"Marina."

The stranger smiled, lifting her wings to take flight, "Call me Alinla. And thank you again."

The mysterious newcomer suddenly burst into the trees, tearing off in search of a roost as the bird's first call echoed among the trees.


	2. The Silverwings

Chapter 2 – The Silverwings

Author's Note :: I changed the rating of this story to T, just to let you know. Some stuff happens in the end that requires it.

Eclipse swept through the forest on the gentle summer breeze as he scanned the night for something to eat. The summer had brought nothing short of a surplus of food, but this bat, already nearing the size of a one-year-old silverwing, found himself constantly hungry as his body grew at an alarming rate. His body was not too large, but his wings spanned the sky with such intense contrast in size to his body he felt as though he was the clumsiest creature in the forest.

Hovering just below a thick tangle of branches, he glanced around with his huge black eyes once more, and this time instead of spotting insects to eat, all his eyes focused on was five approaching Silverwings. He sighed under his breath; though the Silverwing elder had welcomed them into the forest, even allowed them to rest in Tree Haven on the cold nights, the other Silverwings where no so receptive. Even the newborns, gullible and endlessly trusting, had made his life miserable from the moment they left their mother's sides. Not because they thought Eclipse was evil somehow, just because there was a shade of deference in Eclipse; not only his appearance, but in his vary attitude and manurisms. He was not the same, not at all, not even in a way that they would just shrug off, but to them, Eclipse was terribly and debilitating weird.

"Hey Eclipse!" One of the male newborns called. He sighed; he had been forced out of hiding.

"Come over here!" A female cried with a layer of unignorable dislike, as if she would throw rocks at his if he actually came.

But Eclipse fluttered towards the perch nonetheless, glancing around to see what bats where calling him. A male called Innuo had called him, and the female was Odia, both newborns in the colony, bound to become mates and have more bothersome little offspring. With them, there where two other males and one other female. He males he recognized as Innuo's minions, Renco and Vinan, but he had never seen the female before. She was peering at him curiously, head tilted to the side as her pretty eyes danced with something he had never known in the eyes of Silverwings. Her wings fluttered, and he saw the thin line of bright orange fur on her side; she was Marina Brightwing's grandchild! He was almost positive of it.

"How's hunting, Redwing? Oh, sorry, I mean Vampyrum," Innuo laughed sarcastically, and all but the unknown female went on laughing.

"I'm a Redwing," he growled, "My mother is a Redwing and so I am too."

"So, Daddy was a cannibal, wasn't he?"

Eclipce grunted, baring his teeth at the bat. "What do I care, Wimp?"

Innuo just laughed because he knew that even a bigger, fiercer bat could be chased off if he was not alone and his mother was in earshot. "Gunna eat me?"

"Probably," Odia snorted, "Not as if he's any good at catching insects."

Eclipse was about to shout "am too!" when suddenly a tiger moth streaked right past their noses. He would not tell them, the thought, he would show them.

He dropped headfirst from his perch so not to smack the other bats with is wings, and, once out of range, unfurled them and summersaulted impressively in the direction of the tiger moth.

He would not use his ears. Tiger moths gave off those confusing sound pictures, and so he might end up chasing the wrong moth if he used his ears. He pinned back his black ears, tight against his head so very little sound entered them. His mother was a fruit bat, and so her eyes where much better than the eyes of northern bat, a strong genetic advantage she had passed on to him. So, focusing on the moth before him, he pushed his wings harder and harder, opening his mouth wide until -

With a cheer of delight, he snatched the moth in his teeth, crunching as he back flipped in the air towards the others.

"See?" He said, through a mouthful of bug. "I can hunt just fine."

The others looked away as he grinned again.

"Wow," said a little voice suddenly, making them all jump. It was the grandchild of Marina that had spoke up. "That was impressive. How'd you ignore the sound pictures?"

Eclipse perched, wondering if she was being sincere or merely teasing him. "Err... My ears are so small, see," he twitched his small ears, another attribute he had acquired from his mother. "So I can just flatten them against my head and I can't hear the sound pictures."

"Plus his echo vision isn't very good," Odia added.

Eclipce spit a piece of bug guts at her.

"Cool," Said the female. "My name's Solstice, by the way. And I know your Eclipse."

He nodded. "Yeah. That's me. You're Marina's granddaughter, are you?"

Solstice smiled. "You bet. And Griffin and Luna Silverwing's daughter, at that."

The brightness of her smile made Eclipse grin back.

"Hey guys," Said Innuo suddenly, "Do you wanna go hunt without Eclipse?"

There was a murmur of agreement among the group, and they all got ready for flight as Eclipse's mind raced. "Wait!"

They all looked at his strangely.

"I know a place," He said dramatically, "Absolutely teaming with bugs. It's a bit of a risk down there, but worth it. Unless you're too scared."

Innuo and the others glanced at each other again, eyes sceptical but excited. "Okay. Take us."


	3. The Swamp

Chapter 3 – The Swamp

Author's Note :: Sorry it took so long to update. I was helping someone move, and well... The chapter is a tad bit long.

Eclipse was not sure where he was leading them.

He had only told them of the hunting grounds in a spontaneous determination to prove himself. And now, flying deeper into the forest than he had ever been, he was not sure if he would ever find a place like the one he had described. With Solstice at his wingtip, Innuo behind him, and the other bats trailing behind, he was sure they would figure it out and be angry with him. Especially Solstice, who seemed to be putting an awful lot of faith in him.

But, as if by some amazing stroke of luck, he found the perfect place. A swamp, practically solidly packed with mosquitoes, branches overhanging, a thick smell of rotting leaves and stagnant water hovering in the air.

"See?" Eclipse said. "Look at all the bu-"

But Innuo, Odia, Vinan, and Renco all shot past him furiously, eyes hungrily fixed on the bugs as echos bounced in every direction. "First one to five hundred wins!" shouted Odia. And the competition began.

Solstice giggled beside him. "I bet you could get to five hundred before any of them," she said, "Unless..." she was grinning and Eclipse eyed her as they descended. "Unless I get five hundred first!"

He laughed, tearing off after her towards the swamp, and, intentionally twacking her over the head with his wing, dove as he caught ten bugs in his open mouth. Practically choking on mosquitoes now, she darted in front of him, sending him into an ungraceful hult which ended in a plummet to the water.

"Hey!" He shouted as he pulled his waterlogged wings from the water, shaking off thick droplets of murky water onto her pristine black-and-silver coat. "Cheater."

More giggling, and they both dove in opposite directions to resume the competition. Eclipse had some trouble downing the bugs; it was not in his nature to feed on them, for his mother was a fruit bat and his father a meat-eater. (He refused to eat meat, though.) He preferred the sweet-tasting barries and sour-but-filling crab apples that grew here, but insects, he would have to live with. He was not particularly concerned with winning the competition; he only scooped up a hundred bugs before he simply swerved off towards a low-hanging branch as he watched the others dive through the walls upon walls of buzzing mosquitoes, laughing carelessly as they called out their scores: "Two hundred sixty-eight!" Called Vinan; "Three Hundred one!" Replied Renco, Fallowed by Innuo's "Whatever, you're all pathetic! Three hundred ninety-five!" Odia laughed scornfully; "Three hundred ninety-seven!"

Solstice scooted past him with a wink. "Four hundred twelve. Who's pathetic now?"

Eclipse laughed at the anguished response from the others; Renco shouted loudly, Innuo growled "No way!", Odia snorted then squealed "Eww, bug blood up the nose!" And Vinan seemed to have given up. He had never felt quite so at home among the Silverwings, but still, in his shyness and fear of them, he felt himself retreating inwards, his body tensing every time they streaked by after a bug, and decided to hang out in a nearby bush, where he could listen but not intrude.

In the bush he had fluttered to, he found a patch of ripe berries, and joyously ate, filling his belly with the sweetness of them, allowing the high sugar to fill him instead of those terrible-tasting bugs. He would have to tell Mother about the barries once he got back to their little tree hallow; Little Haven, Mother called it.

He heard scores being called out again, and glanced over his shoulder to see that everyone had landed on the overhanging branches, looking queasy as they tried to hold in all the mosquitoes they had eaten. He laughed at the stupidity of their contest; what's the point eating if it makes you sick and you throw it back up anyway?

"I got four hundred and ninty-two. Unless someone did better, let's just call it over," Innuo said, as Eclipse lifted his head from the barries to glance again at Solstace. She was surely the most promising newborn of them all; he would be surprised if she hadn't already made it to five hundred.

"I got four hundred ninety – one sec..." she snapped her jaws over a mosquito, "I got five hundred. So I guess it is over, eh Innuo?"

Eclipse laughed out loud at the mourn sounded by the others. "Seriously?" "You're such a cheater!"

She beamed. "I can't believe you all thought it was so hard. Anyway, we should be heading home soon."

There was a murmur of still-resentful agreement.

"Wait," Renco said suddenly, "Where is Vinan?"

Silence. They all glanced around the swamp, an uneasy stillness settling in. The frogs had stopped croaking. The chirp of crickets was absent. And, suddenly, not far away, a bird sounded an alarm call and scattered into the sky.

"Something must be coming -"

Solstice gasped suddenly, eyes snapping shut as she relied only on her ears to draw the picture of the shadows. Eclipse glanced where her ears had swivelled to, but, suddenly, the calm passed. Chaos had broken loose.

All the newborns squealed as a tree full of birds scattered, and Vinan, who had flown from the shadows, shot out an ear-piercing cry for help. And, the sound Solstice had been focusing on burst from the bushes after him; a lynx had fallowed the wandering Vinan back to the swamp.

Solstace, Innuo, Odia, and Renco dove into the trees, out of sight as they all seemed to give up on their friend. Vinan was flapping upward, but sheer terror and shaking was inhabiting him from flying strait up.

Eclipse stayed still. He was not about to plunge himself into a deadly situation for a bat he didn't even like. Sure, it was selfish, it would not make anyone proud, and the Silverwings would probably give him the "Nocturna would want you to" lecture if they knew what he was thinking, but he didn't care, really. He would fly home to his mother that morning, tell her about the swamp and the barries and the lynx, he would explain himself about not helping, and he would go on with his life. Besides, attacking or distracting the lynx only complicated the situation further.

Suddenly, Vinan twitched violently and plunged right for the lynx's swatting range. The beast wasted no time in clawing him angerly, sharp claws ripping through the newborn's body like he was a piece of bark that had fallen from the tree. An unexpected turn of events, Eclipse thought, he had been fully expecting the little bat to flap he way up to the trees with his cowering friends. How terrible.

"Eclipse!" Solstice hollered suddenly; she had gallantly doven towards the the scene, trying to distract the beast who was about to eat her friend. "Help!"

Allowing Vinan to sink into the murky water below, the lynx had turned his attention to Solstice, swatting and roaring at the bat who hovered just out of reach. Eclipse rolled his eyes; now, he supposed, he had to help.

Swooping down with his fur bristled, he bared his fangs and screeched at the beast, causing to to turn and face him, not wasting any time turning his attention on the creature who had screamed in his ear. "That's enough, Beast, if you aren't going to eat us than get lost and waste your time killing prey."

The lynx roared out and unintelligeable response, and Eclipse rolled his eyes again. This was certainly more effort than he had been willing to exert.

Still, he turned sharply, aiming his needle-sharp teeth at the lynx's tail. This was dangerous, he told himself, and he really should not be so stupid as to try it, but he plunged his fangs into the flesh, drawing blood as he beat his wings against the animal's rump.

Roaring, the lynx turned, and with a twitch seemed to have been bitten by a mosquito, which seemed to annoy him more than Eclipse's bite. As the mosquitoes scented the blood and dove in to bite, the lynx took off into the shadows.

Pleased, Eclipse watched it run.

"Eclipse!" shouted Solstice, "Vinan's still under water! He'll drown!"

Eclipse looked up with a snort. "He's probably dead already."

"Just try, please! He'd do it for us!"

"Doubt that. But I'll try I guess." He hated how irresistible she was.

Folding his wings to his body, he took the plunge into the water. Murk rose from all directions, obscuring his vision, and water filled his ears and nose. He had no useful senses, and he squinted as he shook his head at himself. How stupid can one bat be? But then, a leave suddenly touched his fur, and he whirled, eyes opening in surprise. That was it. He would feel his way to Vinan.

Swimming until he reached the bottom, the skimmed his outstreched wings against the swamp's muddy floor. He still thought the whole thing was rather stupid, but he kept going, trying not to inhale the water as he moved. It was becoming hard to focus as his chest tightened, and he wanted to serface more than anything. Too long, too long...

His wings scaped something furry.

Grabbing at the fur, he reafed upward, splashing desperately as his whole being screamed for air and land and freedom from his wet, mucky prison. He suddenly inhaled a great gulp of water, caughed, inhaled more, and, with intence realif, found the surface and used the last of his energy to swim to the muddy edge, still half-submerged as he dragged Vinan's body out of the mud.

Solctace landed beside him. "Our mothers are on their way. I'm so sorry I made you do that."

Eclipse gasped for air again, and water spewed from his lungs in heaving caughs. "He's dead."

"I know. Look."

He glanced at the blood that was matting onto all three of their coats, coming from three narrow gashes on Vinan's belly. "He didn't drown, though. He was dead before he hit the water."

The shadow of their mothers swooping in from overhead blocked out the moon for a moment, and as Alinla's familiar smell drifted into his nostrils, Eclipse quivered. At last he could go home.

He clung to his mother as soon as she landed, and she flapped to the overhanging branches as she worked furiously to clean him, asking no questions, just grooming as she looked at the other mothers who had also grabbed their young and perched.

"Who did this to him, Solstace?" asked the bat who was odviously Luna. "A beast or a bird?"

"Beast. It was a big lynx, Momma. Eclipse tryed to save him, but he... I'm so sorry, we couldn't..." she was crying now, and Eclipce burried his head in his wings as tears rand down his own cheeks.

Vinan's mother was still on the ground, wailing as she hugged him in her wings. "WHAT WHERE YOU DOING HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?"

"Hunting," Solstace said through her tears.

"WHO -" she breathed for a moment as she realised that the young bat had not been responsible for her baby's death. "Who's brillient idea was that?

"Mine," Said Eclipse. "I lead them here."

Vinan's mother glanced furiously at them. "Get control over your boy, Alinla," she said, "He's nothing but a curse to our colony."


	4. Vampyrum

The night air was cool and crisp, though the scent of the jungle foliage, of wet loamy soil and the low scintillating hiss of the insects cut through it like a knife. And underneath it all could be sensed a sort of anticipation…a feverish desire which lay heavily upon the minds of all present at the gathering. After all this _was_ the night in question. The night which would change the lives of all of them.

_It was here that the plan would begin._

Goth along with twenty other respected members of the Vampyrum elite hung arrayed round the fortune teller, an ancient vampire bat that had flown into the colony's inner sanctum not three nights ago looking for king Goth. The old one spoke of a message received from the god himself- Zotz. And Goth had seen the awed look in his eyes, that same aura of otherworldliness which he himself had exhibited after each communion with the dark lord. Doubtless he spoke the truth. And if he was lying, goth would personally sacrifice him to Zotz upon the stone altar-or maybe devour him slowly..after all committing such heresies as speaking falsely in the name of Zotz was not a light offense by any means.

Now the king examined him with a practiced eye, measuring him mentally, observing his movements. He was small, underfed even and, in Goth's opinion, barely edible, but he was the one who had sparked the plan in the first place, and so Goth had not eaten him – yet.

"Tell me again, what Zotz told you," Goth said slowly to the vampire bat called Cruor, who he had forced to sit on the floor.

The old bat sighed, and wheezed painfully. "I told you fifty times already. He said ' To thou who spills the blood of the king upon the altar- shall be granted the gift of eternal night. And infinite favor in my eyes.' But you Goth must be the one to spill your own blood', he said. And as someone who's dealt with promises and prophecies and whatnot for thirty years, I cannot say your plan will work."

Goth snorted derisively, glaring down at the unfortunate from his high perch, his gaze cold, calculating. "All requirements have been fulfilled…the necessary subjects have been identified. Give me one good reason why it would _not_ work?!"

"Because it is not your blood, only half! You will run out, for Zotz calls for every drop."

Goth shrugged. "If we don't get enough from Eclipse, we shall turn to Dimmer. It's that simple."

"Who shall be heir, then?"

"Zotz will grant me eternal ruling if I but do this for him. I have no concern for their lives. Eclipse has been deemed… _disposable_. And even Dimmer has spoken of turning his back on the jungle-nay even Zotz himself. I would have no problem killing him if need be. In fact his death is warranted, even demanded. We would be doing the colony and our souls a great disservice by allowing them to live."

A bat in the corner flicked her wings uncomfortably. "In all other respects has he not been faithful? In truth these transgressions were minor, merely things heard in passing by others. Would it not be better to have him examined, see perhaps the truth in his-" the elder found herself silenced in the face of Goth's disgust.

Goth snarled at her. "I beg you to still your tongue, Uxora. Lest you further prove your inheritance of Alinla's failings."

"My apologies to all."

Suddenly, a chirp of a northern bat sounded from the cave's farthest entrance. It was Vomica, a Silverwing spy returning from another sweep of the northern realms.

"Ah, Vomica. How is Vinan doing?" Goth said with faked care.

" Dead, no thanks to your boy and Griffin's little one. The two of them lead four other newborns into the territory of a lynx. My son was among them during this. He's cursed, Goth, without a doubt. Nothing good has ever come from his being among us. Oh, and I don't think Alinla is going to give him back. She was talking to me – we talk because I've assumed we were both allowed to share information, at least with each other – and she was going on about how much she loves that boy and how much she would hate to see him hurt. She'll blow the operation if she stays around long enough. And he's pretty far gone, too. Doesn't act a thing like you and he's rude and damnably bad-tempered. Vinan's friends, Innuo and Odia, they say they can't stand him. And Marina's got him to thinking that the Silverwings like them, which I assure you they do not."

Goth wrapped his wings around his body tightly, in an attempt to ward off the chill air, as he glared at the talkative spy. "Has he grown to any great degree?"

"No, just a tiny thing. A runt like his mother."

"Intelligent?"

The little bat shrugged. "Well, yes, I suppose he is, Goth. He comes from good blood in that sense. You are intelligent and, though we wish to deny it, his mother is too. Just too emotional is all her problem is, and too noble and caring and all that garbage."

Goth nodded. "Are they in Tree Haven, under Marina's protection?"

"No, thank Nocturna for that."

Another nod. " We must act soon that is a given if anything. Preferably before they begin to migrate- finding them may be all the easier. We shall weed him and his mother out and the Silverwings will fall into our claws when they get to Hibernaculum, like the other Northern bats. That's one colony I'd like to have captured before we make our sacrifice. Oh," he glanced at Vomica again, "Does the boy have friends?"

"I suppose he and Griffin's girl are close, but I wouldn't call them friends. Why do you ask?"

"I would advise the elimination of his friends-anyone who will resent us for sacrificing him could possibly begin some sort of resistance movement, and that is the last thing we'd need at this stage. Tell the Northern operatives that should they find her or any member of Shade's family, kill them. But ensure that Eclipse, remains alive above all else Vomica- or the price will be great."

* * *

After a passing of three nights, the Northern lands had begun to awaken.

As the night fell over the sky, the Silverwings flew from Tree Haven on the hunt. That day marked the day that stood out in the minds of the colony as the beginning of a countdown; one week before they left for the south. One week, seven days, and they would be uniting with their brothers and mates and sons and fathers. They all murmured it to each other as they flew; "one week! One week! One week!" Excitement was filling the air as the cold seemed to enter right along with it.

Eclipse was clinging to the bark of Little Haven, wings curled as he stared out at Tree Haven, which was fairly visible from his little home. His mother had already gone off to hunt, and he merely watched as bats rose into the sky from their home in Tree Haven. He spotted Renco, who spent an increasing amount of time alone now that his best friend Vinan was dead; he spotted Odia and Innuo, who spent endless hours together now; he even caught a glimpse of Marina, hovering high as she watched out for her colony.

A deep intrinsic sense of lonlieness had descended over him, and had remained since Vinan's death. His mother's depression had seemed even more profound and, it was unusual that no one was around to taunt him. All of his friends seemed to steer clear of him now, and Eclipse had been repeating the same mantra in his head over in his mind for days; _I am a curse to them all...no good can come of my presence…_

"Eclipse," said a voice suddenly, and his eyes focused as he glanced over to his side. Solstice was peering at him from the side of the hallow tree. "You are coming to Hibernaculum with us, right?" she asked.

"Err... I'm not sure."

"What are you going to do?" demanded Solstice, perching beside him, little head glaring up at him, "Freeze to death?"

"Mom talks about going back to her Island sometimes. She said that one day we have to go back to the South to find my father."

Solstice seemed stunned for a moment. "What am I supposed to do without you? Odia and Innuo don't let anyone hang out with them anymore, and Renco's all sad and stuff, and no one else really likes me much. Just you."

"What?" Eclipse exclaimed, shooting a glance at her, "You're the most popular newborn in the colony!"

"Only because of my parents, and because Marina's my Grandmother. Plus all the males fallow me around because they think I'm pretty or something, which I'm not-"

"Sure you are."

"Whatever. You don't care who my parents are and you couldn't care less about who the elder of the colony is, and you like me just because I'm me. I like that," Solstice said, faltering slightly, "You're my friend, Eclipse."

Eclipse twitched his ear slightly, looking away as he took it in. He wasn't blushing and he didn't really feel like getting all happy-dappy about it, but he had never been any one's friend before.

"We could be friends," he muttered.

"You're impossible!" Solstice sighed, exasperated but amused nonetheless.

"Want to go hunting with me for awhile?" asked Eclipse with a grin. "We can chat all about how hopeless I am once we have food on our stomachs."

They swooped out of the tree, into the forest, where they ran through a small cloud of buzzing gnats and swallowed the sour-tasting creatures in several gulps before zooming off in another direction in search of something new. Solstice caught a beetle, and Eclipse managed to get hold of a juicy dragonfly.

"Bugs aren't really that appealing, are they?" asked Eclipse with a gag.

"Sure they are. What else would you eat? Tree bark?" Solstice said as she snatched a bug right from under his nose.

"Fruit. Leaves. Roots," Eclipse replied, swerving so he wasn't blowing too much air from his own wings towards her, "Bat meat, maybe." He laughed.

"Eww," Solstice exclaimed with a wrinkled nose, "You're such a freak."

As she said it, a Silverwing steaked by them that both recognized as Vinan's mother, who had apparently been handed the misfortune of being called Vomica, as Eclipse had later found out. She eyed the coldly, giving Eclipse a wide berth and muttering to herself as she darted away.

"No, she's the freak, Solstice," Eclipse said under his breath with a giggle, "What's her problem, anyway?"

"They all think that you are a curse…these deaths…they think you're the cause of it." Solstice said slowly.

"But I'm not even officially _in_ the colony."

"Yeah, but you live near us and... Well... Vinan was so promising and stuff, everyone thought he would be great."

"He was Innuo's minion!"

Solstice shrugged. " I guess. But you know, it's just..."

Miles away, a great shadow swept over the moon as a terrifying screech rang loud and high over the forest. Two great wings had swept momentarily over the moon, and two more came from the shadows, and four more, eight more...

Twenty giant bats had come into the forest.

And all were after Eclipse.


	5. Capture

Chapter 5 – Capture

Author's Note: Oh my, where have I been? I've been wickedly busy but now it looks like I won't be back to school until Christmas holidays so I'll have time to update more.

Only one thing occurred to Eclipse.

It was not to grab Solstice and protect her; it was not to stay and fight or holler for help or anything a bat is _supposed_ to do in a bad situation.

He just flew.

Downwards, was his first notion, towards the ground, into the think branches where the bigger bats might have trouble catching him. He turned his wings down, plummeting at an alarming speed, as two giants snapped their enormous teeth at his tail; they where very, very fast.

A bat appeared right in his line of vision, horrifying eyes causing him to yelp in horror and pull sharply on the air to stop himself. As he did, though, his back was grabbed by two huge sets of claws, digging into his fur, as more terrified shouts of panic escaped his lips.

Rearing back, he did the only thing that he knew to do: Bite. Bite hard. His needle teeth sank into the leg that had a hold of him, and the grip loosened just enough that he could wiggle free and take off at full speed into the forest, fur catching on twigs as he listened to the sound behind him of branches snapping as the giant bat cleared the trees like he was merely cutting through the tiniest leaves as apposed to the thick branches. He could faintly hear Solstice calling him, and he felt a pang of sickening guilt for leaving the poor thing. Only an hour ago, she had called him friend, formed some sort of unbreakable pact, a truce between the pretty Silverwing and the awkward-looking halfbreed. All he could do was shut his eyes and wince painfully.

He cleared the trees suddenly and realised he was flying through a clearing, completely unprotected now, and, eyes setting on the forest that stretched out before him, he beat his wings harder than he could remember beating them, not daring to look back, until the claws where upon his back again, this time clamping tightly to his neck so he couldn't turn his head to deliver another bite. He could no longer hear Solstice, and as he shot echos around, he could see only the forest they where speeding towards and a cloud of the terrible bats who where pursuing him.

"Shut up, Boy!" The one holding him shouted, "You'll disturb the whole forest."

Eclipse clamped his mouth shut; he had not realised he had been squealing, crying out little squeaks of pain and fear, as if he where a bald, sightless newborn calling to his mother. But, also becoming aware of how much it had perturbed the giants, he began to wonder...

A high pitched shout escaped his lips, deafeningly loud and high and painful to the ears. With a surprised grunt, the bat who had been grabbing him loosened his grip just enough for him to wiggle free, and dart, yet again, into the forest on his own.

"Damn you, Capio! He's getting away!" he heard one of them say, "You remember what Vomica said."

Eclipse nearly fell when he heard the name. Vomica? As in Vinan's mother? As in a bat he knew, _a bat who's son he risked his life trying to save_, was conversing with these terrors? Perhaps even being _friendly _towards them? His ears rang with rage as he muttered aloud to himself: "Silverwings really are good for nothing."

Quite suddenly, though, the bats where upon him again. His wings seemed to have been powered by a renewed energy that he understood to be the sharp, cold, biting anger that had welled up in his blood, but even that force was not enough to outfly his pressures. For the third time, they where right on his tail, this time through a part of the forest that was so thick it was like trying to fly trough a wall of tangled branches, and Eclipse was dimmly aware of the thick, metallic smell of blood in the air and knew that both he and his pursuers where getting caught on branches. His nostrils flared, eyes wide, wondering how on Earth he would get out of this, why he was being chased in the first place, and, most pressingly, what was happening with Solstice, his friend, his companion that he should not have left...

As the anger in his blood changed to dull, aching guilt, he slowed his pace slightly as his wings gave a jolt of pain and his eyelids blinked heavily. He wanted to be back at Little Haven, curled under his mother's wing, allowing her to decide what would happen next. He was intensely alone now, and making decisions for himself that might be determining his overall fate in the whole mess. He had given himself to the fact that there was little chance he could get away alive, but his instincts alone, the very core of what he was and the laws nature had ingrained into his brain was driving him to fight just a little longer.

He felt, for the third time that night, claws ripping into his back, this time so tight he felt blood seep down his side. A pitiful squeak escaped him, and he was still as stone, wings still unfurled as he tried to slow the movement of the beast that was tugging him through the sky.

"No use, Eclipse, we have you now," laughed one of the giants, and the others began chuckling with him.

"How do you know my name?" Eclipse demanded, "What do you want with me?"

"We're servents of King Goth," came the reply, "He has sent us to retrieve you because your stupid mother wouldn't hand you over as planned."

Eclipse struggled as anger touched him again, turning his head to attempt a bite. This time, though, he was greeted with a set of fierce fangs, big enough to chomp off his head. Too angry to recoil, he bared his own fangs and felt the consequences instantly. The fangs snapped down on his nose, making Eclipse shout and flap his wings madly. The bat only bit harder, though, until Eclipse heard the sickening sound of his teeth clicking together, still deeply sunk into his nose, and he nearly passed out in the claws of the terrible creature. He was held like that for a few agonising moments, before the fangs where roughly torn from his skin, blood matting into the other bat's snout as he smiled grimly.

Eclipse was unaware of what he was doing for a moment, but, with his wings suddenly limp, the bat had wrapped his claws around his wings to retrain him, gripping his neck in his fangs as he twisted Eclipse's body at an uncomfortable angle. When Eclipse finally shook himself of the pain, he knew he was totally captured, and the situation was completely hopeless now. If he wasn't killed, he would be taken somewhere far away from his home, to this "King Goth" the bats spoke of, and then... He wasn't sure, but as his mind raced with possibilities he began to feel sick and whimpered childishly. Why him? Why did they want _him?_

Tired and cold, he could hardly feel the roughness that the bat was carrying him with. He listened to them speak to each other, slowly processing their words.

"Storm coming... Up to ten days with the wind blowing like this... Vomica made record time... Goth will be pleased... Expected us to take a month... Indeed, so little faith..."

Eclipce shivered at the thought of a storm; it was already cold enough already. Would Solstice leave for Hibernaculum without him? Apparently he would be flying for a long while, and he truely hoped she wasn't dumb enough to stay behind to wait or, worse yet, fallow them. Though, as he puffed up his fur and closed his eyes against the wind, he selfishly hoped that she was right behind them, with some ingenious plan to set him free. They could fly back to Tree Haven, and be ready to leave for hiberation and then unite with the males and spend the winter somewhere warm... And sleeping for all those months in a quiet, warm place was all he wanted now.

He was numb now, and felt the last of his strength seep away as he allowed himself to drift into an uncomfortable rest.


End file.
